


but the bruises don't lie.

by projectfreelancer



Category: DCU, Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 00:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16943667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectfreelancer/pseuds/projectfreelancer
Summary: dick and his time as robin in flashbacks.





	but the bruises don't lie.

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Но синяки не лгут](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18092303) by [Ampaseh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ampaseh/pseuds/Ampaseh)



> WARNING: heavily implied sexual child abuse and use of drugs in regards to the abuse. we do not trust titansverse bruce in this household.
> 
> title from Bruises by Transviolet

Seeing Jason is like pouring salt into one of the many wounds that Bruce has left on Dick Grayson.

“I’m the new Robin,” he claims, but all Dick can hear is the rush of blood in his ears, heartbeat quickening, sly thought of, _Really, Bruce? Really._

In the end, he’s not really all too surprised: of course Bruce would find another. Someone more willing, more obedient, better than him.

 _Even though he’s probably younger, and healthier, and smarter_.

And in a way, it’d be easier to accept if it wasn’t so easy to accept.

—

Jason takes it all in stride. He’s trained by the best, Dick knows. He hasn’t been broken or corrupted yet.

Yet.

Dick was once undamaged too.

—

“There’s a fucking tracker in my arm?”

It hurts more than it should. And if Jason weren’t here, he’d let it show. He feels the bubbling fury rising within him; the urge to just hit something or anything. The idea that Bruce would believe he owns Dick so much that he could easily open him up, slice his skin, and input a piece of Wayne technology like Dick is nothing but his property. And the idea that Dick was not allowed to be conscious during it but Jason was. Like Jason is better. More obedient. A better lapdog. A replacement for the defect Robin.

 **(** Sometimes he wakes up in the batcave after hours of darkness and — he doesn’t remember how he ended up here, just remembers patrol and coming back from patrol, and sometimes Bruce would put a hand on his shoulder and then —

This time there’s a bandage on his arm, blood-red seeping through the gauze. Bruce is there, like he sometimes is, and he says, “You got hurt on patrol. You need to be more careful.” But there’s something about the way he says, the way his body seems to be intaking air too fast, the way a flush rises on his cheeks as the cowl is off of him. And Dick was trained by the best but why Bruce looks like he just went through a round of intense training is lost on him. Why Dick cannot remember Bruce patching him up is lost on him.

He rarely questions why he loses track of so much time and wakes up always changed out of his uniform by someone who was not himself.  **)**

Jason will learn. Or maybe he already knows.

Dick isn’t sure what would be worse.

—

“So how long have you and Bruce been—”

“Together?”

 **(** Dick likes to think it’s the first time. Bruce and gentle hands on him. Bruce and knowing just the right way to undo the Robin suit. Bruce and whispers of praise, of love, of words Dick isn’t sure he deserves to hear. He wants to hope it’s the first time. But Bruce knows the clasps of the suit too well; his words come out too practiced; everything about the scene feels like it’s something Bruce knows all too well while Dick flounders in how to react to everything new.

And before they find their way to Bruce’s room, when Dick lays on the batcave floor, breathless and opens his eyes, it feels like a memory he’s relived all too often.

But it’s easier to say it was the first time.  **)**

  
“Guess he saw potential.”

And Dick can easily see his own once-upon-a-time innocence reflected in Jason’s blue eyes, and his sarcasm spilling from too-full lips, and Dick knows what Bruce saw.

Because Bruce saw it in Dick too.

—

“He did it for you. For us. In case anything ever happened to us.”

 **(** And surely Bruce believes that. Everything he does is for Dick’s training or ensuring their — partnership is strong, well-oiled, a frictionless machine. That every late night spent in the batcave, or Bruce’s bed, or anywhere hidden from Alfred’s watchful eyes is just a long winded form of training. It’s simply to keep Dick safe. That this means nothing to Bruce. But Dick knows that cannot be true. That it has to be more than training, or a reward, or a punishment.

Because, though he would not say it to his mentor, Bruce is a selfish man. And Bruce would not do it if some part of him did not want to.  
And if it were purely training, he would remember when it began.  **)**

— 

“Bruce did right by you, didn’t he?”

 **(** Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes Bruce holds him after it all, and he says things that mean more than lust-driven praise. Stuff like, _You’re a good Robin. The best. You’re perfect. I love —_ and Dick starts to think dangerous thoughts like,  _This is okay. This is how it's supposed to be. I love —_

Dick starts to think that this is what Robin is meant to be. That, to Bruce — to Batman—, this is the only way to be a good Robin **. )**

“He did the best he could.”


End file.
